Angelo Michele Bartolotti di Bologna:
Secondo libro di chitarra (Rome, c 1655)

Giovanni Battista Granata:
Soavi concenti di sonate musicali per chitarra spagnuola, opera quarta (Bologna 1659)

Francisque Corbett:
La guitarre royalle (Paris 1670)

Robert de Visée:
Livre de pieces pour la guittarre (Paris 1682)

Gaspar Sanz:
Instrucción de musica sobre la guitarra espanola (Zaragossa 1674/1697)

Francisco Guerau:
Poema harmonico (Madrid 1694)

After the guitar had just recently been more or less "invented" in Spain (for this reason it was called guitarra espanola or chitarra spagnuola), it did not take long for it to start its triumphal march through all of Europe in the mid-17th century. The guitarist Pierre Pitzl presents this development on his first solo CD for Accent in exemplary fashion, using the examples of three musical centres and composers active there: Granata and Bartolotti in Rome, De Visée and Corbetta in Paris as well as Sanz and Gerau in Madrid. The image resulting from this is a highly variegated one: only a strummed instrument in the beginning, the guitar soon developed a highly differentiated technique consisting of both strumming and plucking. In this way, a new style of composition and sound was created hand in hand with a previously unheard-of, bold treatment of dissonances.

The attraction of this CD is found precisely in this variety and high technical standard. Pierre Pitzl satisfies these demands with impressive bravura, for he is a master - more so than hardly any of his peers - of the "mixed style" with its subtle alternation between strumming and plucking.